T E A C H E R’S G U I D E
GRADE 3 UNIT: Trashbot
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ThinkEarth
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Contents
Introduction…………………….…………………………………3
Unit Objectives
Planning
Materials
Technology Use
Standards Correlations
Teacher Response Form
Lesson 1: Understanding the Environment……………………6
A. Administer the Pretest
B. Introduce and show the Think Earth video
C. Discuss the video
Additional Activities
Lesson 2: Learning About Pollution……………….………….11
A. Take an “environmental walk”
B. Show or read Story 1, Trashbot
C. Discuss the poster, Our Community
Additional Activities
Script: Trashbot
Lesson 3: Recognizing Pollution Problems………………….21
A. Conduct a review
B. Demonstrate emissions from a burning candle
C. Have students complete Practice Exercise 1
Additional Activities
Lesson 4: Learning About Pollution Solutions……...…….…27
A. Show or read Story 2, A Little Means A Lot
B. Provide group practice
C. Have students complete Practice Exercise 2
Additional Activities
Script: A Little Means A Lot
Lesson 5: Practicing Think Earth Behaviors…………….…..37
A. Review Think Earth behaviors using poster
B. Conduct role-playing
C. Discuss the Family Activity Sheet
D. Administer the Posttest
Unit Follow-Up Activities…………….………………….………44
Glossary…………………………………….…………..………..46
Acknowledgements…………………………...……..………….47
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
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Lesson Two
Learning About Pollution
Objectives
Concepts: Students will understand the following environmental concepts:
a. We use natural resources from the environment to produce products that we use.
b. Producing, distributing, and consuming products all create waste.
c. Waste goes into our water, onto our land, and into our air.
d. Our trash disposal system and water treatment system manage most waste.
e. Improper disposal of waste on land or in water can cause pollution.
f. Burning fossil fuels for energy puts pollutants into the air.
g. Pollution harms the environment and all living things in it.
h. We are working on ways to minimize pollution.
Skills: Students will:
a. Identify ways that soil, water, and air can become polluted in and around
our homes and neighborhoods.
Materials
• Story 1, Trashbot (video or PDF)
• Our Community color poster
• Our Community poster in black and white
Preparation
• Prepare to present Story 1, Trashbot. (Show students the video,
or project the PDF pictures and read the story aloud, or print the PDF and create a
book to read.)
• (Optional) Make copies for students of Story 1. See Procedure B.
• Prepare to project the Our Community color poster.
• (Optional) Make a copy of the black and white poster for each student.
Vocabulary
• built environment – everything people build or make from natural resources
• fossil fuels – oil, coal, and natural gas—which formed in the earth from the remains of
prehistoric plants an animals
• landfill – area of land where trash is buried
• minerals – substances we take from the ground, e.g., metal ore and sand, and make into products
• natural environment – everything from nature—sunlight, air, water, land, plants, animals,
humans
• pollution – filled with a lot of unclean and harmful substances
• wastewater treatment plant – a place that cleans water that goes down our drain
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
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Grade 3: Lesson Two
Procedures
A. Take an "environmental" walk
• Write the following two terms on the board: Natural Environment and Built
Environment. Ask students what they think these terms mean. Explain that the
natural environment:
- comes from nature
- consists of sunlight, air, water, land, plants, animals, and humans—which are
all natural resources.
Point out that the built environment:
- is made by people
- includes buildings, roads, clothes, computers, and other products that we use
to live
- is all made from natural resources, such as trees and fossil fuels, from the
environment.
• Tell students that they are going outside to look for examples of these two
environments. Have students bring paper and pencil on the walk. (Note: lf your
class is unable to go outside, conduct this activity as a class discussion. Ask
students to think about what they might find outside that would be part of the
natural environment and part of the built environment.)
• Take students on a brief walk, perhaps around the perimeter of the school. Have
students work either in teams or individually. Ask them to make two lists—things
they see in the natural environment and things they see in the built environment.
• After the walk, list on chart paper or on the board what students found in the
natural environment and in the built environment.
• Ask students how each of the following elements of the natural environment help
us live and how they affect other things in the environment.
– Sun (The sun gives us warmth and light. Without sunlight, plants could not grow, and
we'd have no food.)
– Air (Living plants and animals, including people, must have plenty of fresh, clean air to
breathe and grow.)
– Water (Plants, animals, and people need fresh, clean water to live.)
– Land (We build our homes and grow our food on land. We live on the land, and we
take many natural resources from the land.)
– Plants and Animals (Plants and animals give us the food we need to live. We also
use them for many other things, such as clothing, paper, fabric.)
• Ask students to imagine life without either the natural environment or the built
environment. Help students to see that both environments are important to us.
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
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Grade 3: Lesson Two
B. Show or read Story 1, Trashbot
• Present the story Trashbot to students in one of the following ways:
– Show the video.
– Project the pictures from the PDF and read the text from the script (included in
the PDF and at the end of this lesson).
– Give each student a copy of the story or project the script and have students
either follow along as you read the story or read the story aloud themselves
while you show them the pictures from the PDF.
– Print the PDF and create a book to read to students.
• Use the questions below to discuss the story. Either call on individual students to
answer questions or reproduce the questions for students and have them work in
teams to answer the questions.
1. What natural resource is a comic book made from?
(A comic book is made mainly from trees.)
2. What are some of the wastes from producing one comic book?
(Leaves and branches are sometimes left over from trees that are used for paper. Ink
cans and chemical bottles are left after the ink and chemicals are used. Boxes and
wrappings that held the paper become waste when they are empty. The bag the comic
book came home in might get thrown away. And water gets dirty all along the way,
from making the paper to cleaning things. Waste goes into the air when fossil fuels are
burned to make the electricity needed to make the comic book and to transport it.)
3. Does all this "waste" need to be thrown away?
(No. Many things, such as boxes and bags, can be reused. Other things—such as
cans, bottles, and paper—can be recycled.)
4. Do all these "waste" products come from natural resources?
(Yes. Paper comes from trees; electricity, chemicals, and plastic come from fossil
fuels; metal and glass come from minerals in the ground.)
5. What happens to the waste that we put into trash cans?
(Trash gets picked up by trash trucks and is usually taken to a landfill where it is buried
under dirt.)
6. What happens to the waste that goes down our drains?
(In most places, especially in cities, dirty water goes down our drains through the
sewer to a wastewater treatment plant where dirt and germs are removed before the
water is put into rivers, lakes, oceans, or the ground—back into the water cycle.)
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
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Grade 3: Lesson Two
7. What can happen if dangerous chemicals get into landfills or into our water?
(They can pollute the soil and the water, making them unsafe and unhealthy.)
8. What should we do with dangerous chemicals, such as bug spray and paint
remover, and with old electronic equipment, such as computers, printers,
and cell phones?
(Dangerous chemicals and electronic appliances and equipment must be taken to
special places so that they will not pollute the environment. They should not be put in
the trash or down drains.)
9. How does waste get into our air?
(Particles, gases, and smoke are released into our air whenever we burn things. We
burn fossil fuels for most of the energy we use—to make electricity, to make heat, and
to run our cars.)
10. What happens when our air gets polluted?
(The air is not clean so it can make us cough or make our eyes sting. Sometimes it is
not safe to breathe.)
11. What do we do about pollution in our air?
(We've found ways to cut down on how much gets released into the air, but a lot of
harmful substances still go into the air. Once the air is polluted, there is not much that
we can do.)
12. What happens when our land gets polluted? When our water gets polluted?
When our air gets polluted?
(When our land gets polluted, we can't safely grow plants to eat. When our water gets
polluted, people, plants, and animals can't safely drink it. And when our air gets
polluted, people and animals have a hard time breathing, and plants do not grow as
well.)
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
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Grade 3: Lesson Two
C. Discuss the poster, Our Community
• Project the color version of the Our Community poster for students to view. If
applicable, have them view the poster on their tablets or computers, or give each
student a copy of the black and white poster.
• Explain to students that the poster shows the environment within a community
where people live and work. Ask students to point out the following on the poster:
Find…
Possible Answers
1. things in the natural
environment
sun, water, air, soil, plants, animals, people
2. things in the built environment
houses, buildings, cars, clothes, bicycle, power poles
and lines, etc.
3. places where people produce
products from natural
resources
paper mill, water treatment plant
4. places where products from
natural resources are sold
grocery market, Coffee Corner
5. the "lifecycle" of a comic book
that gets thrown away
from forest to paper mill, to print shop, to market, to
someone's home, to the trash can, to the trash truck,
to the landfill
• If you distributed black and white posters, either collect
them or have students keep their posters and color
them in their spare time. Tell students that they will be
looking at the posters again later.
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
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Grade 3: Lesson Two
Additional Activities
• Demonstrate solid, liquid, and gaseous forms. Melt an ice cube (solid) to form
water (liquid). Then boil the water to create steam (gas). Continue to boil the water
until it disappears. Ask students to figure out where the water went (evaporated
into the air). Ask students to determine common wastes that are solids (paper,
cans, leaves, glass, plastic); liquid (leftover beverages, dishwater, bathwater,
paint); and gas (gases from burning fossil fuels in cars, heaters, factories; vapors
from chemicals and paints).
• Learn a song. Teach students the following song. If desired, have students listen
and sing along to the audio of either the vocal or instrumental recording. (Note: A
new verse is added to this song at every grade level.)
(to the tune of "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star")
Think Earth, Think Earth is our song.
Everyone should sing along.
Don't waste paper, save a tree.
It is good for you and me.
Think Earth, Think Earth is our song.
Everyone should sing along.
Turn off lights and the TV.
It is good for you and me.
Think Earth, Think Earth is our song.
Everyone should sing along.
Reduce, reuse, recycle too.
It is good for me and you.
Think Earth, Think Earth is our song.
Everyone should sing along.
Water, land, air, and sea,
Keep them clean for you and me.
Think Earth, Think Earth is our song.
Everyone should sing along.
Think Earth Environmental Education Foundation
www.ThinkEarth.org 16
GRADE 3 UNIT: Trashbot
STORY 1: Trashbot
ThinkEarth
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MaryAnn had finished reading her new comic book, “Earthlings,”
and tossed it into the trash can as she walked by. Just as the
booklet hit the trash, she heard, “Get that out of here!”
MaryAnn turned around, surprised. “Who said that?” she asked.
“I did,” said the trash can, which all of a sudden looked less like
a trash can and more like a robot or something—a Trashbot.
“Throwing away that perfectly good comic book is not good for
the environment.”
“What do you mean?” said MaryAnn. “It’s just one little comic book.”
“One little comic book!” the Trashbot shouted back. “Why the waste that comes from producing
that one comic book could fill this entire kitchen!”
1 of 4
“Yeah, right,” MaryAnn muttered as she turned to walk away. But she was stopped short as the
one-time trash can turned into various machines, factories, and vehicles and began spewing out
leaves and branches, boxes and bags, cans and bottles. Then, out the bottom of this contraption
flowed a little river of dirty water.
“Whoa!” said MaryAnn, stepping around and pushing aside all the waste now filling the kitchen.
“You mean all this waste comes from making one comic book?”
“This and more,” answered the little Trashbot. “From producing the paper from a tree, to printing the
words and pictures, to delivering the comic book to the store, to your bringing it home in this plastic bag,”
it said, coughing up a bag that came from the local market, “all kinds of wastes are created.”
© 2014 Think Earth Foundation